Monthly Archives: December 2016

My husband is the one who got me interested in his weapons. Left on my own previously, I never paid much attention. But he likes to go out target shooting, and when I married him, I began tagging along. This is when he would offer me a chance to shoot with him, and I really enjoyed doing it. Just a few months ago, he actually put together a handmade rifle for me that fits my exact wants and needs. He even bought me a couple of pink camouflage gun stock covers for it, too.

As someone who never cared much for camouflage items in the past, I was thrilled when I went to a sporting goods shop and found out that they sell pink camo. I now joke and tell everyone that pink camo is my favorite color. There are nightgowns, shirts, baseball hats and so much more, and I get whatever I can when we stop by the store where they sell so much of it. Continue reading →

Man City 1 Arsenal 1

Arsenal went to the home of the current Premier League Champions yesterday and showed them just how hard it is going to be to hold on to that title.

Manchester City’s squillion dollar squad have not been beaten at home in 32 matches, but came very, very close yesterday to losing that record. But for some poor finishing by Gervinho, they would have gone down 3-1. Arsenal dominated the first half and should have gone in two goals up at half time. But instead a poor attempted clearance by goalkeeper Vito Mannone allowed Joleon Lescott to head in David Silva‘s corner, five minutes before the break. City were more influential in the second half, but a late strike by returning centre back Laurent Koscielny ensured that Arsenal did not leave the north west empty handed.

The presence of Robin Van Persie may have ensured a win for the Gunners, but since his departure and the appointment of Steve Bould as assistant manager, Arsenal have become a much more rounded side than in recent seasons. Santi Cazorla is undoubtedly the most creative midfielder in the Premier League so far this season. Arteta is solidly consistent and Diaby is showing some of his old attacking form. Podolski always looks dangerous and Gervinho has already scored three goals, one short of his entire bag last season. Unfortunately Gervinho slipped back into his old ways against City on Sunday, busy and quick, but largely ineffective. Maybe he loses confidence against the larger sides. Aaron Ramsey, starting his first game of the new campaign, had his best outing in an Arsenalshirt for some time. Then we get on to the defence. They are now showing some of the miserliness of the Arsenal defence of old. They have conceded only 3 goals in 6 matches so far, two of them down to goalkeeping mistakes and the other was an iffy penalty.

Despite the loss of inspirational captain, Thomas Vermaelen, before the start, Laurent Koscielnycame in and ably deputised, although there was one very dodgy attempted clearance just after he scored the equaliser. Gibbs, Mertesacker and Jenkinson have improved almost beyond recognition and the biggest compliment I can pay the latter is that Sagna will struggle to regain his place when he is back to fitness.

Neither of the Arsenal goalkeepers are perfect, but both have great potential and despite being at fault for City’s goal yesterday, Mannone has actually been the more effective in his appearances so far.

Once they add Sagna, Wilshire and Rosicky to the side that was fielded yesterday, Arsenal really have a squad more than capable of picking up the missing silverware from the last 6 years.

In other matches over the weekend, Manchester United and Chelsea both secured narrow wins, over Liverpool and Stoke respectively, to hold onto the first two positions in the table. Fulham had an away win and Wigan look like they will be spending another season in the danger zone. Southampton picked up their first points of the season with a 4-1 win over Aston Villa. Some commentators have been forecasting doom and gloom for the newly promoted side, but they did face the first, second and third placed sides of last season in their first four matches and were very competitive in two of them. Spurs secured their first home win over the entirely revamped QPR.

Despite Swansea’s good start to the season, they were given a football lesson by Everton at their own ground on Saturday, going down 3-0. Although I am not keen to see Welsh sides in the English Premier League, I think both of these honest clubs are worth two of the poaching Chelsea, Man City and United’s of this world. Buying and selling players has always been part of the game, but when these clubs turn the great game of football into a game of Monopoly, something has to change.

This week sees the third round of the Capital One Cup (League Cup) and you can expect to see many of the senior clubs fielding youth or reserve players. But the Premier League will resume on Saturday with some big matches, featuring Arsenal against Chelsea, Manchester United against Spurs and Fulham against Man City should be interesting too.

Results and Highlights from Round Three Matches in the English Premier League.

Fergie time lives on in 2012. Manchester United had trailed Southampton at their St Mary’sground from the 55th minute. But with only 3 minutes of regular time remaining the former Arsenalcaptain, Robin van Persie, stabbed home a rebound to put United on level terms at 2-2. As if that was not enough, Van Persie completed a hat trick in extra time to give United all three points.

After a nervous start Southampton took the lead in the 16th minute via a Rickie Lambert header. Van Persie evened things up with a half volley at the back post from an Antonio Valencia cross. Southampton reclaimed the lead 10 minutes after half time when Patrice Evra slipped and Morgan Schneiderlin headed home another goal for the home side. Shortly after Paul Scholes was introduced Man Utd were awarded a penalty, when Jos Hooiveld scythed down Robin Van Persie in the box. Van Persie took the penalty himself, but it was saved by Kelvin Davis. Southampton were looking good for the win when van Persie’s two late goals left them empty handed.

It was a game for the statisticians, with Van Persie scoring his 100th Premier League goal and Sir Alex Ferguson celebrating his 1,000th game in charge of the Manchester club.

Southampton now sit bottom of the Premier League, the only side with no points after 3 games. But they have faced the might of the squillionaires from both sides of Manchester and given a good account of themselves in both tests. It should not be long before they clock up their first Premier League points since their promotion.

Fans of Van Persie’s old club Arsenal finally had something to cheer about in their third fixture of the new season. After a week of criticism from some “fans” for not buying more players before the close of the transfer window on Friday, Arsene Wenger took his remodelled side to Anfield and picked up a 2-0 win, with both goals coming from new boys.

Unlike Arsenal’s first two opponents of the season, Liverpool did not sit with 11 men behind the ball and although they applied plenty of pressure Arsenal’s defence stood strong. Arsenal were regularly able to attack on the break and after a missed pass from Steven Gerrard, Santi Cazorla surged forward passing to Lukas Podolski in the box, who finished well. Liverpool’s attacking options were limited with Luis Suarez their lone striker and no plan B on the bench, having loaned Andy Carrollto West Ham during the week and not replaced him. Suarez had his regular game of making chances and throwing himself on the ground and calling foul at every other opportunity.

Raheem Sterling, Liverpool’s 17 year old winger, was impressive, but many of the more established heads in the side were not. While Arsenal had very good contributions from Diaby, Cazorla, Podolski and Manone, who made some good saves in his second consecutive Premier League start. The game was sealed for Arsenal in the 69th minute when Santi Cazorla scored, beating Pepe Reina at his near post when he allowed Cazorla’s well struck effort to go under him. The chorus of Arsenal criticism on the web during the week was reversed on Sunday afternoon.

Liverpool’s loss was very much West Ham’s gain. After his loan move during the week, Andy Carroll starred in the Hammers 3-0 win over Fulham, setting up two of the goals himself. Carroll’s height and heading prowess is tailor made for Sam Allardyce’s long ball game. For which he has made no excuse. Some West Ham fans have been chanting “Are we Bolton in disguise?” But Allardyce’s response is that West Ham’s traditional brand of football got them relegated, which is hard to argue with after the way they dominated Fulham on Saturday.

West Ham scored in the opening minute, when Carroll headed down to Vaz Te who picked out Kevin Nolan and he drilled his shot home at the far post. Winston Reid powered in a free header for West Ham’s second and it was pretty much all over by half time when Matt Taylor struck in the 41st minute. Unfortunately Carroll limped off in the 68th minute when he leaped for a header and appeared to pull a hamstring. The resulting injury has meant he will miss England’s World Cupqualifying matches next week and Allardyce will be hoping he will be fit when the Premier Leagueresumes on Saturday week.

Elsewhere draws were in abundance. Everton lost their 100% start when they lost 2-0 at West Bromand Man City secured a 3-1 win over a completely revamped QPR. The west London side have either bought or loaned an almost completely new squad over the summer transfer window. But all other games finished in draws.

Spurs looked particularly woeful at home to Norwich. Drawing 1-1 in a match that Norwich should have won, had they put away their chances or been awarded the penalty when Steve Morrison was dragged down in the box by Benoit Assou-Ekotto. Some people are tipping Spurs for a top four finish this season. They have made some good buys, Dembele looked good on Saturday, but I think it is hard to see when they have sold two of their best players and replaced an established, successful Premier League manager with one who has only experienced failure in the league when he had the bottomless resources of Chelski at his disposal.

The Premier League takes a break for International fixtures next week, let’s hope all the key players come back without injury.

Results and Highlights from the Second Weekend of Premier League Matches

The second week of the English Premier League saw the first Robin Van Persie goal for Manchester United and it was a spectacular one, while his old club Arsenal have failed to bag a Premier League goal since his departure.

Van Persie was included in the starting line up for United in their home fixture against Fulham, who were fresh off of their 5-0 victory over Norwich. Things started at a hectic pace with Damien Duff scoring for Fulham in the third minute from Bryan Ruiz‘s clever free-kick. But Van Persie put the hosts back on level pegging only 7 minutes later with a spectacular strike of Patrice Evra’s cross. Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa, who was also signed this summer, extended United’s lead putting away the rebound after Mark Schwarzer saved Tom Cleverley‘s shot in the 35th minute. But United were not finished and there was a frantic 10 minutes before the break where Kagawa hit the post and Rafael had a goal disallowed for offside before the he headed in Ashley Young‘s centre.

In the second half United eased the pace and came a cropper when Matthew Briggs crossed from the left and Nemanja Vidic back-heeled into his own goal. Wayne Rooney was introduced after 68 minutes but was stretchered off after he was caught in the thigh by Hugo Rodallega which opened up a large gash. It looks like Van Persie could be the lone striker for several weeks now.

In contrast there were no goals in Arsenal‘s clash with Stoke. Arsenal dominated most of the play but were unable to put away any of the chances they created through the crowded Stoke defence. This is just the sort of game where Van Persie would have stolen one or two for the Gunners at the end of last season. Podolski, Cazorla and Kieran Gibbs all had good games. But Arsene Wenger pulled off surprise substitutions, replacing Podolski and Cazorla when it would have been more logical to most observers that Diaby and Giroud would have been dragged. Giroud had a spectacular long range shot go just over the bar and missed an attempted scissor kick from inside the box, when he had time to control the ball before striking. The main positive for Arsenal from this game was that the defence is looking more solid than it has for some time and it may not be too premature to say that, newly appointed Assitant Manager, Steve Bould is having a positive influence after only two games. But most Arsenal fans are still wondering “Where will the goals come from?”

The Liverpool Manchester City clash was a lively one with Martin Skrtel scoring with a stunning header from a Steven Gerrard corner in the 34th minute. On the hour, with City still 1-0 down, Roberto Mancini shuffled the pack replacing last weeks man of the match Samir Nasri with Jack Rodwell and Mario Ballotelli with Edin Dzeko. This had the effect of releasing Ya Ya Toure further forward and he obliged with City’s equalizer, only 3 minutes after the change. But Liverpool took the lead again only 3 minutes later when Rodwell was harshly penalized for handball that he could not avoid and Luis Suarez put a 25 yard curling free kick out of Joe Hart’s reach in the bottom corner. But come back kings City did it again with a lot of help from Martin Skrtel. The first half hero turned villain in the 80th minute when he attempted to pass back to his keeper, not realising that Carlos Tevez was in easy reach. Tevez collected the ball and went around the keeper to secure a draw for the reigning champions.

Poor defending was in even more evidence from West Ham in their match at Swansea. West Hamkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen let a straight forward drive across the face of goal go under his body for Swansea to go in front in the 20th minute. As if that wasn’t bad enough James Collins gifted Swansea their second with a terrible short back pass which let in Michu to score. Swansea’s third goal was more of their own making; a fine move saw Danny Graham scoring from close range from Wayne Routledge‘s low cross. Swansea now sit second on the table with 8 goals from their two games.

Everton maintained their 100% record with a 3-1 win at Aston Villa and Chelsea stayed top having played three games and beating Newcastle 2-0 at home. Last weeks 5-0 losers Norwich and QPRfaced each other and honours were shared one all. Tottenham were held to 1-1 draw too, at home to West Brom. Bring back ‘arry. Another of Mr Rednapp’s old clubs, Southampton, went down 2-0 to Wigan at home.

Results and Highlights of the First Round of Premier League Games

After all the trauma of the summer transfers, well for some of us anyway, the new EPL season got underway at the weekend. The first round of games completed on Monday night with a welcome defeat for Manchester United, welcomed by everyone that isn’t a Man Ure supporter that is.

After United’s close season poaching of Robin Van Persie, Arsenal captain and top scorer last season, I suspect Arsenal fans were even happier with Everton’s 1-0 victory than Evertonthemselves. Van Persie started the game on the bench and only came on for the last 22 minutes and did nothing effective. After their huge investment in the 29 year old striker, United found themselves short of central defenders. Michael Carrick filled in for the injured Rio Ferdinand, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans and Everton took full advantage of that. Marouane Fellainiscored from a 57th minute header from Darron Gibson‘s corner. United keeper David de Gea, had kept Everton at bay with a series of outstanding first half saves before that.

The other side of Manchester scored a narrow victory over newly promoted Southampton on Sunday. reigning Premier League champions Manchester City got a taste of how hard it is going to be to retain that title. City scored a late victory after going 1-0 up then 2-1 down to the south coast side. Southampton played some attractive football and scored two goals in ten minutes after prodigal son, Carlos Tevez, had put City ahead. Rickie Lambert and Steven Davis, who both came on as substitutes, scored Southampton’s goals and an unlikely win, over City’s multi million dollar squad, looked to be on the cards. But Edin Dzeko brought City back on level terms and another Arsenaldefector, Samir Nasri, finished a man of the match performance with the winning goal in the 80th minute.

Big spending Chelsea started their campaign with a 2-0 away win over Wigan. Both of Chelsea’s goals came in the first 8 minutes of the game. £32m ($48m) new signing Eden Hazard cleared his man and put through a great ball for Branislav Ivanovic to score inside two minutes. Five minutes later, Hazard was brought down in the box by Ivan Ramis, who he had escaped to set up the first goal. Frank Lampard stepped up to take the penalty and put it under the diving Al Habsi. Wigan went on to dominate large chunks of play but never created many clear cut chances and were unable to claw back the early deficit.

Big winners on Saturday were Fulham and Swansea who both scored 5-0 victories over Norwichand Queens Park Rangers respectively. New signing Mladen Petric scored twice for Fulham on his debut. There must have been something in the west London air, as Michu and Nathan Dyer both scored twice at QPR to give Michael Laudrup a dream start as Swansea boss.

Things did not go so well for their ex-boss though. Brendan Rodgers‘s first Premier League game as Liverpool manager was a nightmare, going down 3-0 at West Bromwich Albion. WBA’s new boss Steve Clarke, who was sacked as assistant manager at Liverpool in the Kenny Dalglish clear out, got sweet revenge. Zoltan Gera, Peter Odemwingie and substitute Romelu Lukaku got Albion’s goals. They also missed a penalty after a foul by Daniel Agger that saw him sent off, Liverpool also picked up three yellow cards.

West Ham started their new Premier League campaign with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa. Kevin Nolan scored the Hammers goal and they had plenty of other chances, including an obvious penalty denied when Carlton Cole was shoved in the back by Villa defender Ron Vlaar.

Newcastle scored a 2-1 home win over Tottenham in a match that saw their manager sent to the stands for shoving a linesman. I am sure there will be further action on that, despite Alan Pardew’s apology. You cannot go around shoving match officials. Demba Ba put Newcastle ahead with a spectacular curling strike. Tottenham pulled one back through a scramble on the goal line and Jermaine Defoe slotting home for Spurs. But minutes later Ben Arfa was brought down in the box by a combination of poor challenges from Rafael van der Vaart and Aaron Lennon. Ben Arfa himself converted the resulting penalty.

Arsenal new boys Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski were included in the starting line up against Sunderland, while Alex Song was absent, being mid-way through his transfer to Barcelona.

Cazorla had an impressive debut creating chances and forcing an excellent save from Sunderlandkeeper Simon Mignolet. He linked up well with the Arsenal midfield and Mikel Arteta in particular. Podolski, Diaby and Theo Walcott all had goal scoring chances, but were unable to get past the solid Sunderland defence and Mignolet. Sunderland had a couple of chances themselves in the first half, one of which looked clearly offside to me and the Arsenal defence, but apparently not anyone else.

Diaby had a promising come back and despite the loss of Song, the Arsenal midfield looks to have plenty of depth, with Ramsey on the bench, Jack Wilshire and Tomas Rosicky yet to come back from injury and the strong possibility of signing Nuri Sahin on loan from Real Madrid. That aside, Arsenal could not breakdown the Sunderland defence, who often had 10 or 11 men behind the ball. Giroud replaced Podolski in the 64th minute and missed a sitter, set up by Cazorla, from 12 yards, not the ideal debut.

Chelsea have a mid week fixture against Reading on Wednesday, but it all starts again for everyone else on Saturday.

Highlights and Results from Day 15 of the The London Olympics 2012

Who would believe that the second Saturday in the Athletics stadium could come close to the first? But close it came. It didn’t yield three Gold medals for the host country, like the first Saturday, but there was a remarkable second Gold for long distance man Mo Farah, a new world record for the 4 x 100M Relay and more entertaining antics from Usain Bolt and Mo Farah.

Things really kicked off with the first track event of the night, the Men’s 500 Metres. Mo Farah was a warm favourite and the hope for most of the 80,000 in the stands. But could he back up after the 10,000 metres and a heat for the 5,000? The man was on 20,000 metres of competitive running. The race started at a really slow pace and after a couple of laps Farah decided he needed to take the pace on himself. So he led from the front for a while. There were lots of lead changes with the Kenyans, Ethiopians and Bernard Lagat of the USA all trying to find the best position for the finish. With about 750 metres remaining Farah kicked very early for home. There was a lot of competition for the front spot over the last two laps, but coming into the home straight Farah opened his stride and no one was going to catch him. Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia was right behind Farah and Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa of Kenya beat Bernard Lagat to the Bronze.

The Women’s 800 Metres was next on the track. There was much talk of Caster Semenya, the South African who has mainly been in exile since her World Championship win 3 years ago and the allegations and questions of her gender that followed. Semenya spent most of the race at the back of the pack and the Russians led. She kicked with about 130 metres to go but had let the lead runners get too far away it seemed. But she did manage to catch and pass all but Mariya Savinova of Russia, who won Gold. Semenya could certainly have won the Olympic title had she ran a smarter race.

The US team for the Women’s 4 x 400 metres Relay were firm favourites and led the race from beginning to end. They finished more than 3 seconds ahead of the Russians, who claimed silver. Jamaica beat off a strong challenge from Ukraine to win the Bronze. This was the fifth successive Gold for the Americanwomen in this Olympic event, the third Gold medal at these games for Allyson Felix and the second for Sanya Richards-Ross. Is that domination or what?

The Men’s 4 x 100 metres Relay set up another showdown between the big guns of Olympicsprinting, Jamaica and the USA. Nesta Carter and Michael Frater gave Jamaica a good start, but they were marginally behind the USA when Yohan Blake took the baton. The Jamaican changeover was better than the Americans and Blake ran a great bend to catch them and takeover. When Bolttook the baton Ryan Bailey was pretty much level with him, but only at the start. Bolt exploded down the home straight, he showed no signs of slowing at the finish and even dipped for the line. It was all worthwhile; the Jamaicans had set a new world record by two-tenths of a second. Bolt and Blake led the celebrations, throwing their regular poses and shaking hands and hugging everyone around the track. There was a minor dispute with an official as Bolt wanted to keep the baton, but the official insisted it was returned. But this is not a games of bureaucracy and it was presented back to him before the night was over. Bolt mimicked Mo Farah’s hands on head celebration, as Farah had imitated Bolt’s celebrations with some sit ups after the 5,000 metres. They later posed together as the two stars of the night at this London Olympics.

That finished the events in the stadium. Many people are sad to see the London games come to an end and I am one of them. It has been nothing short of magnificent.

Events were finishing all around London. The Football (Soccer) had a surprising end at Wembleywith the favourites Brazil being beaten 2-1 by Mexico. The defending of the Brazilians was atrocious, giving away the ball carelessly in dangerous areas. The first time was only 30 seconds after the kick off and Mexico capitalised through Oribe Peralta, who put away his chance for the fastest ever goal in an Olympic final. Other Brazilian mistakes saw Mexico hit the bar and no one was really marking Peralta when he scored his second, heading in from a corner. The Brazilians scored on 90 minutes through Hulk and they had a few minutes of injury time left to equalise and take the game into extra time. But they hardly deserved to and justifiably Mexico took the Gold.

The USA convincingly beat France 86-50 in North Greenwich to take the Women’s Basketball Gold. US forward Candace Parker top scored with 21 points. Earlier Australia had beaten Russia83-74 to take the Bronze.

Germany retained the Olympic Men’s Hockey title with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands. It was a close finish but with two minutes remaining, Rabente scored the winner from close range. Australiaagain claimed Bronze beating Great Britain 3-1 in the play off.

In Boxing 5 titles were decided at the Excel arena. Great Britain’s Luke Campbell beat Irishman Joe Nevin in front of a rapturous home crowd to claim the Bantamweight (56Kg) Gold. But the most impressive celebrations of the night came from Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk after beating Clemente Russo of Italy for the Heavyweight (91Kg) Gold medal. Usyk wound up events with some Cossack dancing, which could have been mixed with some break dancing, it was hard to tell. But it was the only celebration in this Olympics I have seen that has come close to Usain Bolt’s.

There are several events that wind up on this final day of the London Olympics The Men’s Marathon should finish around 1:40PM. Men’s Basketball has the play off for Bronze between Argentina and Russia, Spain face the might of the USA Dream Team for the Gold. There are five medal deciding Boxing bouts. Mountain Bike Racing, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Handball, Modern Pentathlon, Volleyball, Water Polo and Wrestling all come to a conclusion today. So the Londongames will go out with a bang not whimper.

This will of course all be followed by the closing ceremony, surprises have been promised. If they dragged out Paul McCartney for the opening, I am expecting a full Beatles reunion for the closing.

Highlights and Results from Day 14 of The London Olympics 2012

Day 14 at the London Olympics saw another world record broken on the track. The US Women’s 4 x 100M Relay team knocked almost half a second off of the record for the event that had stood since 1985.

The US team of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter got off to a fast start and Allyson Felix ran a great second leg, by the time Carmelita Jeter got the baton in her hand she had a healthy lead on their biggest rivals, Jamaica. Jeter finished beautifully and was even seen checking out the clock on her way to the finish line. It was the first time the USA had won this event since 1996. The Jamaican team, which included the Women’s 100M Gold and Bronzemedallists, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown, broke their national record, as did third placed European champions Ukraine.

The heats for the Men’s 4 x 100M Relay also provided lots of drama, with home team Great Britain finishing second behind the USA only to be disqualified for the final handover between Daniel Talbot and Adam Gemili. To be blunt the handover was a complete mess. It was not completed until they were outside the designated area, then Gemili ran into the next lane. That apart, Gemili ran a good leg. The USA had the fastest qualifying time for the final, but only one hundredth of a second ahead of Jamaica, who are yet to add the dual 100 and 200 metre champion Usain Bolt to their team.

The Men’s Pole Vault was won by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie in a new Olympic record of 5.97 Metres. Australian hope and Beijing Gold medallist for the event, Steve Hooker, failed to register a jump and went out very early.

There was also a new Olympic record set in the Women’s Hammer Throw by Tatyana Lysenko of Russia, the Silver went to Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland and the Bronze to Betty Heidler of Germany. The event is still dominated by eastern Europeans, but Wenxiu Zhang of China came in fourth.

The Women’s 5000 Metres was a close run finish, with Meseret Defar of Ethiopia claming the Gold, ahead of Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot of Kenya, fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba scored Bronze. British girls Joanne Pavey and Julia Bleasdale came in 7th and 8th, the first non-Africans.

The Women’s 1500 Metres saw an amazing one two from Turkey with Asli Cakir Alptekin and Gamze Bulut sprinting through the field in the home stretch to claim Goldand Silver. Maryam Yusuf Jamal scored Bahrain’s first medal of these games in third place.

The final event of the evening was the Men’s 4 x 400M relay where the favourites, USA were surprisingly beaten by the Bahamas, who set a new national record. Trinidad and Tobago came in third only just ahead of Great Britain.

Boxing was semi finals night for the men and saw British boys Anthony Joshua, Fred Evans and Luke Campbell all qualify for finals to fight for Gold. On Saturday, bantamweight Luke Campbellfights Ireland‘s John Joe Nevin. On Sunday, welterweight Fred Evans faces Serik Sapiyev of Kazakhstan, before super-heavyweight Anthony Joshua meets reigning champion Roberto Cammarelle of Italy. However, middleweight Anthony Ogogo lost his semi-final to Brazil‘s Esquiva Falcao and had to settle for Bronze.

In Diving British hopeful and teen idol Tom Daleyqualified for the final, but only in 15th place, 78 points behind Chinese leader Bo Qiu. Australia will be represented by Mathew Mitchum who finished 9th in the qualifier.

In Men’s Football (Soccer) the Bronze medal play off was won by South Korea who beat Japan 2-0 with goals from Arsenal striker Chuyoung Park and Jacheol Koo.

Great Britain claimed the Bronze medal in Women’s Hockey with a 3-1 win over New Zealand.

Sailors Mal Page and Mat Belcher scored another Sailing Gold for Australia in the 470 class. British crew Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell won the Silver.

Saturday night sees nothing but finals in the Olympic stadium, six of them, leaving only the Marathon to close out this fantastic Olympics on Sunday. Stay tuned, I’m even going to watch the closing ceremony this time.

Results and Highlights from Day 13 at The London Olympic Games 2012

Another sensational night in the London Olympic stadium. This games just keeps on delivering. What more could we ask for? A World Record in the Men’s 800 Metres and Usain Bolt completing the double double by winning the 200 Metres.

David Rudisha of Kenya was the out and out favourite for the 800 Metres Gold medal. There was good reason for that. He led the final from start to finish and while the battle was going on for the minor placings Rudisha crossed the line well ahead of the chasing field in a new World Record. But the following field were not slouching either, every one of them ran a new personal best or created a new national record. The 800 metres at the London Olympics will be long remembered.

The semi-finals of the Women’s 4 x 100 relay followed. The Americans blitzed the first heat, even though they rested their star sprinters. The Jamaicans came in second in the second semi, marginally behind Ukraine. They had a dodgy changeover on the third leg and also have some speedsters to bring in for the final. The Gold will probably be fought out between the USA and Jamaica, but do not discount Ukraine or Trinidad and Tobago.

There was more success for Jamaica in the 200 Metres final. Usain Bolt got away fast and ran a great bend to go into the straight in front of the field. He of course increased his lead, only to do his traditional slow down at the line. Yohan Blake was once again right behind him and Warren Weircame in third for a Jamaican clean sweep of the medals. The strength of Jamaica in sprinting is astounding for a tiny island nation with a population of less than 3 million people.

Usain Bolt and his compatriots celebrated hard again. This time Bolt even turned the tables on the press photographers, borrowing a camera from one of them and taking their photograph, as well as more of the crowd and fellow medal winners. Apart from being the world’s greatest sprinter, he is also one its biggest showman, which is why the crowds flock to the stadium whenever he runs.

Three other athletics medals were decided on day 13. Christian Taylor of the USA won the Men’s Triple Jump and Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic won the Women’s Javelin. Ashton Eaton of the USA won the Decathlon, ahead of countryman Trey Hardee, but it is those track events that are worth bottling.

The Women’s Football (Soccer) competition was finalized with USA winning the Gold by beating Japan 2-1 Canada claimed the Bronze with a 1-0 win over France. By now we were getting a little tired of hearing the US anthem.

Great Britain claimed three more Gold medals on day 13. Jade Jones won the Women’s 57Kg category in Taekwondo and Charlotte Dujardin won the Individual Dressage. Nicola Adams made history by winning the first ever Olympic Boxing medal for women, in the Flyweight division.

In Kayaking Australia‘s Men’s K4 1000m crew of Tate Smith, David Smith, Murray Stewart and Jake Clear won Gold, Australia’s 6th of these games which brought them into the top ten on the medal table.

But Aussie fortunes were not so good elsewhere with the Opals losing the Women’s Basketballsemi-final to the USA 86-73. They will now play Russia for the Bronze medal. The Men’s Hockeyteam the Kookaburras, bowed out their semi-final losing 4-2 to Germany. In Women’s Water Polo Australia won the Bronze medal beating Hungary in the play off. The USA won the Gold medal beating Spain 8-5 in the final.

Highlights and Results from Day 8 of The London Olympics 2012

Day 8 the second Saturday of the London Olympics proved to be the best Olympic day for Great Britain ever. Jessica Ennis fulfilled her promise, winning the 800M final event of the Heptathlon in front of a packed stadium of 80,000 people and who knows how many millions on TV. The pressure on Ennis had been immense, being the face of the games, appearing on billboards and screens all over the country and abroad. But she never let it affect her and delivered in all 7 events.

Sometimes the final leg of the multi discipline events can be an anti climax, with the winner of the whole event finishing down the field in the last race. But Jessica’s sense of the occasion never let anyone down. She led the 800 metres from the start, but was over taken at about 500 metres by three or four hopefuls, Ennis fought back on the final bend and overtook them all to a cheering crowd and delivered all the drama that her triumph deserved.

Jessica Ennis was rumoured to be the most heavily sponsored athlete going into these games, well I am betting she will be plagued with endorsement requests from here in. You are going to see a lot more of this young lady’s face and highly toned frame in the future.

One place I am hoping that we do not see it is in the 100 metres hurdles on Monday. There is talk of her backing up in the individual event that she started the Heptathlon with so well. But I would hate to see anything wreck the fairytale ending, should she not win and I would also like to see Sally Pearson of Australia get her moment in the sun, winning the event she has dominated and trained so hard for in recent years.

Following Ennis’s win on the track, next up was Britain‘s other great medal hope Mo Farah he was also an almost unbackable favourite to win the 10,000 metres. But it was never going to be easy, being up against the Kenyans and other Africans who have ruled this event for so long. But they seemed to run the wrong race, not going out fast enough to negate Farah’s renowned fast finish. And Mo ran his own tactics perfectly, streaking into the lead on the last lap. His American training partner Galen Rupp of the USA was right behind him and the Kenyans Tariku and Kenenisa Bekele came in third and fourth.

Meanwhile in the same stadium Greg Rutherford was earning Great Britain’s third Gold medal of the evening in the long jump. He leapt to victory with a jump of 8.31 metres ahead of Mitchell Wattof Australia and Will Claye of the USA.

All this British Gold overshadowed the final event of the night and one that normally takes the headlines, the women’s 100 Metres. Jamaican Shelley-Ann Fraser-Price successfully defended her Beijing title, beating out Carmelita Jeter of the USA, who led in the first 50. Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica came in third. It was a great race, but way too many hyphens for my liking.

Prior to the Brits lighting up the stadium with Gold, their countryman had already picked up 3 Goldmedals in the Velodrome and in their boats. Great Britain won Gold in the Women’s team Pursuitand set a new world record on the way. The USA and Canada claimed Silver and Bronze. Australiaand New Zealand came in fourth and fifth.

In Rowing Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hoskingwon the Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls and Great Britain picked up their fourth straight Olympic Gold in the Men’s Coxless Four just beating Australia in a thrilling race.

In the last night at the pool Michael Phelps ended his Olympic career in style, with Gold in the 4 x 100M Medley. The USA finished almost 2 seconds in front of Japan and Australia who collected the Silver and Bronze. James Magnusson swam a great anchor leg for Australia, which will hopefully silence his critics.

The US Women were also clear winners in the Women’s 4 x 100M Medley. Again almost 2 seconds clear of the place getters, but the position were reversed from the Men’s event with Australia collecting Silver and Japan the Bronze. So Liesel Jones finishes her Olympic career with medal too.

The Brits did not have it all their way on super Saturday. Their Men’s Football team crashed out of the tournament losing in a penalty shoot out to South Korea, after finishing 1-1 after extra time. This followed the Women’s 2-0 loss to Canada on Friday. In Basketball Australia beat Great Britainconvincingly 106-75. This game followed the American Dream Team’s narrow win over Lithuania99-94.

But all that Gold saw Great Britain finish the day third on the medal table, with only China and the USA in front of them. Australia are sitting 19th after their most disappointing week in the pool in recent memory.

Whatever day 9 holds, it will be hard to pass the glory and drama of day 8, especially if you areBritish. But the Olympics will always have something to surprise and delight.

Highlights and results of Day 5 of The London Olympics 2012

On the fifth day of the London Olympics host nation Great Britain won their first Gold medals. Women’s Rowing Pair Helen Glover and Heather Stanning were not only GB’s first London Gold medallists, but also the first ever British women to win a rowing event. They led their final from the start and appeared to keep putting distance between them and the opposition. There was a little tiring towards the end of the race when the followers gained some ground, if you can do that in the water, but the British girls still finished almost 3 seconds ahead of second placed Australia. New Zealand came in third for an all Commonwealth sweep of the medals.

Shortly afterwards the Men’s 8 took to the water. The German crew were firm favourites for Gold. But the British eight pushed them all of the way and even led for some brief moments. But all that effort told in the final stages and Canada passed Great Britain to win Silver, the British held on for Bronze.

Across the country Bradley Wiggins, this years Tour de France winner, was fighting out the Individual Cycling Time Trial and leading by some distance. He finished 2 seconds ahead of German Tony Martin. Fellow Brit Christopher Froome secured the Bronze medal. This was far from Wiggins first Olympic medal he is the most successful British athlete and Olympic cyclist of all-time with seven Olympic medals, including four Gold medals. He began his career on the track, but has made the transition to road cycling, becoming one of the few cyclists to gain success in both disciplines. But Great Britain can not lay sole claim to Wiggins, he was born in Ghent Belgium to an English mother and Australian Father, who was an endurance cyclist. But do not expect the Britsto be sharing his success.

It was another busy night in the pool with four Swimming medals decided. Great Britain almost picked up their third Gold of the day in the first of those.

The Men’s 200M Breaststroke. Michael Jamieson was gaining on Gold medallist and new world record holder Daniel Gyurta, from Hungary, at the end of the race and had there been a few more metres would have won. Jamieson finished only 0.15 seconds behind Gyurta and 0.12 behind the previous record. Japan in the form of Ryo Tateishi picked up yet another Swimming Bronze.

The Women’s 200M Butterfly final did not feature an Australian for the first time in many years. Liuyang Jiao of China won Gold, in a new Olympic record, Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain Silver and surprise, surprise Natsumi Hoshi of, you guessed it, Japan Bronze.

The Men’s 100M Freestyle featured Australian favourite and Goldmedal hope James Magnussen. As always, it was a very close event with only 0.92 separating first and 8th. Magnussen appeared to have delivered the Gold, but was actually beaten on the touch by an agonising 0.01 of a second by Nathan Adrian of the USA. Brent Hayden of Canada came in third.

The final event of the evening was the Women’s 4 x 200M Freestyle Relay. Having won the 4 x 100M event Australia were going for the double. It was a close battle between Australia and the USA. Alicia Coutts entered the water with a lead on the final leg, but Allison Schmitt swam a brilliant anchor for the USA and they finished with the Gold and a new Olympic record. Francecame in third some distance behind. Great Britain placed a commendable 5th.

In the Men’s Football, Great Britain secured a 1-0 win over a Uruguay side that featured Liverpoolstar striker Luis Suarez. Daniel Sturridge scored the only goal of the game for GB to finish top of Group A. They now face South Korea in the quarter final knock out stage at the Millenium Stadiumin Cardiff on Saturday.

The controversial news of the day was that 8 women were disqualified from the Badminton doubles competition for “not using one’s best efforts to win”. The competitors from South Korea, China and Indonesia appeared to be trying to lose their games in order to secure an easier opponent in the next round.

As a result of the days events Great Britain finished the day in 11th position on the medal table. Australia dropped out of the top ten for the first time at these games. The USA remains second, some distance behind the leaders China.